Palace Full of Delicacies Chapter 7   33 May 02, 2019

Today we have: some ancient Chinese family drama, featuring the Su family! (Nothing much about the cat, I'm afraid)

C7. Setting A Trap

The little furball went stiff, glaring at Su Yu with large eyes. The latter was still dancing about excitedly.

D, damnit…

"Saucey…" Su Yu only noticed that the kitten was angry when it was bedtime. It was curled up on the pillow, its butt facing him. He poked it, but it ignored him; he tugged its tail and touched its hind paws, but it ignored him too. When he got bold and pressed his cheek against the kitten, burying his face in the soft fur, the little guy miraculously stayed where he was, not moving at all.

"Heheh, with this recipe book, we're going to be rich, heheheh." Su Yu closed his eyes, unable to keep himself from laughing like an idiot. "In future, let's start a dining house, and you can sit on the money counter, you'd attract money because you're golden, heheh…But when can I have enough money for a dining house…maybe I should get someone to invest…"

The sound of mumbling came from around his hind leg, accompanied by warm exhales from the nose. An Hongche lay unmoving, sticking his paws out to touch the pillow. His pinkish-white paw pads had long since turned red. This fish-slave was getting more and more undisciplined, he could not be so lenient anymore!

In the hazy moonlight, something slightly cool and soft touched lightly against the corner of his mouth and his cheek. It felt ticklish, seemingly teasing, yet at the same time felt like a mark of sincere reverence. Su Yu couldn't help but shy away, and the warmth moved along with him. Vaguely, he thought he saw a pair of slightly upturned eyes.

Opening his eyes despite the fatigue, Su Yu focused his gaze and realised that his inner shirt had been pulled open, exposing half his collarbones. The furball crouched by his pillow with a solemn expression, cocking its head as it watched him.

"Cheeky fellow." Su Yu smiled, embracing the kitten and stroking it. "Licking me in the middle of the night, did you mistake me for a fish?" He nuzzled his chin against the kitten's head. The newly-grown stubble felt good against his furry head; An Hongche's eyes narrowed as he sneakily pulled back the paws that had been on Su Yu's inner shirt.

In the morning, before Su Yu could wake up from the fluffy wonderland that was the kitten, he was roused by a commotion outside. Clearly, An Hongche hadn't slept enough, for he covered his ears with his paws and burrowed further into Su Yu's arms.

"Second Young Master, there's trouble, Madam and the missus are fighting in the rear courtyard!" Chuncao was whacking the door anxiously.

"Ahh?" Su Yu got a shock. Fighting? Who? His mother and aunt?

So women still fought physically even in this noble family that followed formalities and etiquette! When he thought of his aunt's large build and his mother's small, newly-recovered body, Su Yu got up swiftly, causing the kitten on his chest to roll off and fall onto the bed.

"Meow—" An Hongche stretched, watching Su Yu hurriedly put on clothes and dash outside. He yawned, bored, and licked his paws to tidy up his appearance. Only then did he jump off the bed leisurely, following along to the rear courtyard.

When Su Yu ran over to the rear courtyard, the scene before him was completely different from what he imagined.

Madam Li, his aunt who was as stout as a cow, was dishevelled in appearance. Some sort of tea or liquid had been splashed on her, making her all sticky. Meanwhile, his thin mother, Lady Zhao, was properly dressed, her gaze fierce. Had she not been held back by two maids, she probably would've rushed over to hit the other.

"Mother!" Su Yu quickly rushed over to support his mother who was panting non-stop.

"Li Yunxiu, just look at you now, you still want to become a general's wife, phooey!" Lady Zhao spat, flinging the two maids aside and only letting Su Yu support her.

"Zhao Yuhua, I'm gonna take you down!" Aunt screeched, about to pounce at her. The two maids tried to block her but couldn't, instead getting knocked towards Su Yu's mother.

Su Yu frowned, leading his mother a step backwards and raising his hand to block the arm his aunt stretched towards them. Without a care, Aunt moved her hand towards Su Yu's face.

Lady Zhao suddenly reached out and grabbed Aunt's hair, giving her a slap.

WHACK! The sound was very loud, and for a moment, all was quiet in the courtyard. Everyone was stunned.

"What's going on here!" came the voice of a middle-aged man. It was Su Yu's uncle, Su Xiaozhang.

"Aiya, how are we going to keep living on!" Seeing a man from her branch of the family arrive, Aunt immediately sat down, wailing and crying loudly.

Su Xiaozhang had well-aligned facial features and a tall, well-built stature, but he had a pair of shifty eyes that made him seem very unreliable. Even as a woman from his part of the family kicked up a fuss, he didn't say anything to stop her, only looking at Lady Zhao's and Su Yu's faces. Coughing awkwardly, he asked, "What's the matter?"

"The younger daughter-in-law hit her elder sister-in-law, isn't it obvious?" Madam Li yelled shrilly without waiting for the other two to reply, then cried again, "Such calamity, I gave it all I had to help cure your illness and look after your son and this is how you treat me, such calamity…"

Su Yu's mother Lady Zhao stood there with a cool expression, saying nothing. She didn't say what caused the clash and appeared to have no intention of blaming Madam Li. Rather, she seemed more like someone watching this fight.

"Mother…" Su Yu quietly asked about Lady Zhao's intentions.

Lady Zhao patted the back of Su Yu's hand. "You do not have to talk, just watch."

Thus, Su Yu was relieved, and he relaxed himself, watching from the sidelines. He watched with amazement as Aunt criticised Lady Zhao for purposely causing trouble, berated Su Yu for being rebellious and unfilial, then complained about the family being poor and living a hard life. Finally she shrieked about not wanting to mind the family; Su Yu and his mother could just go live a carefree life on their own, and from then on they wouldn't have any relations. With that powerful voice of hers, all the neighbours had probably heard it quite clearly.

"What nonsense are you saying!" Su Xiaozhang scolded, finally unable to stand it.

"What Sister-in-law said makes sense," Lady Zhao finally spoke up. "I sent someone to invite the clan elders over. Today we shall talk about the proper things, is our family really so poor that we cannot even afford a gulp of sugared water!"

Hearing that the clan elders had been summoned, Su Xiaozhang was immediately jumpy. "Why invite the clan elders over when everything's fine!"

These few days, Su Xiaozhang had run around enough to wear his legs out, and the matter of the nobility rank still hadn't been fixed. Yesterday they had only just worked out some form of a solution, and they couldn't afford to have anything go wrong in this matter.

"If someone does not stand up for this lone child and his helpless mother, we shall starve to death," Lady Zhao retorted, leading Su Yu towards the main hall.

"Oh, oh, you're getting all wronged now!" Hearing those words, Madam Li leaped up at once. "Go, go get them over now, I might as well let them see how you treat your elder sister-in-law!"

Su Xiaozhang originally thought that since it was early morning and no one had eaten a thing, those clan elders could only reach here at almost noon. But when he reached the main hall, two clan elders were already seated there, prim and proper, and he was immediately filled with alarm!

These clan elders were older members of the family within the previous two or three generations[1]. Although they were from side branches and hadn't inherited any nobility ranks, they were elders, and the Su family had to summon these clan elders to preside over all matters big and small. Of course, there was another reason for inviting them. When the genealogy management office considered nobility ranks, they would submit inquiries to elders of the family's side branches, and they had to get approval from these fellow members of the clan.

"Meow…" It was noisy in the house, which made the hungry cat emperor increasingly unhappy, and he scrabbled at Su Yu's pants legs with his paws. When he was ignored, he climbed up Su Yu's clothes and onto the man's back.

Lady Zhao sat directly in the main seat. Since the nobility rank hadn't been fixed, she held the highest position, being the official wife of a general, and by right she was to take the main seat. Su Yu stood next to his mother as backup, so naturally he stood with a straight back and fiery gaze. Even if he had a furball continuously scrambling up his back, he had to remain expressionless and unmoving.

"I invited the two clan elders over for a certain matter." When Lady Zhao had settled down, she brought out a wooden box, placed it on the table, and opened the lid, exposing a strip of bright yellow inside.

Seeing this, Su Xiaozhang and Madam Li became nervous. They couldn't be more familiar with this box; it was the yellow mandate cloth[2] kept in the ancestral hall. Whenever nobility ranks were granted or revoked, they would need the emperor's mandate. If there were any changes regarding the nobility rank, they had to bring this yellow mandate cloth to the genealogy management office.

"My husband has passed on, the nobility position has been left hanging, and the family has deteriorated…" Having said this, Lady Zhao paused, looking at Uncle and his wife intently. "Yu-er is an unofficial son, and even if he inherits the nobility rank, it must be demoted by two ranks, which will make life even harder from now on…"

New names in order of appearance:

Li Yunxiu = 李云秀. (云=cloud, 秀=usually beautiful, elegant, or can refer to plants. 秀 is more commonly used in Chinese female names.) This is a damn beetch Su Yu's aunt.

Zhao Yuhua = 赵玉华. (玉=jade, 华=flowery, splendid) This is Su Yu's adoptive mother, the one he currently lives with.

Su Xiaozhang = 苏孝彰. (孝=filial, often relating to filial piety, 彰=evident, can also mean 'prominent' depending on usage) This is an asshat Su Yu's uncle.

Footnotes:

[1]: I'm honestly not sure how many generations, but this is one detail we can live without until it's ACTUALLY SPECIFIED, so I wrote 'two or three' just to be safe.

[2]: Vaguely translated here, but it's a piece of yellow silk (the original text didn't specify a shape at all) that's granted by the emperor, I think. Kinda represents His Majesty's authority and all that.

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